Unholy ‘Mahajot’ in West Bengal

Nilotpal Basu

THE process of political cohabitation between disparate forces to forge the `grand alliance' in West Bengal is coming out in the open. And it is a truly sordid story of systematic targeted killing and bloodbath. Many in the corporate media can hardly conceal their glee over the electoral reverses that the Left has come to suffer in its bastion. While many of these sections who highlight the commissions and omissions of the Left Front government and the weaknesses of the CPI (M), maintain a studied silence on the nature of the comprehensive anti-Left project that is clearly being played out in West Bengal. It is in this context that there is a genuine need to understand and comprehend the various strands of this overarching convergence of various forces and processes which is at work to successfully meet the central direction of this project – that of seriously undermining and dislodging the Left in West Bengal.

Since the late sixties the growth of the Left movement and the CPI (M) has faced severe attacks from the ruling classes. The premature removal of the United Front from office twice in the late sixties by the imposition of the president's rule with blatant abuse of Article 356 is part of the political history which was primarily aimed to thwart the rising tide of the movement of the workers and peasants. The most significant development during that phase of politics of the state was the unprecedented mobilisation of the landless, marginal and small peasants for land rights. The big land owning elements opposed the United Front government's thrust to identify ceiling surplus land, its vesting and redistribution among the rural poor. The popular struggle to ensure such a direction of the government was spearheaded by the CPI (M) during those troubled times. What is important to note is the decidedly rightist character of the platform which was forged to oppose the Left and dubbed efforts to ensure agrarian reform as one which caused ‘law and order’ problem and provoked anarchy.

But it was also clear that such a blatant rightwing thrust of the opposition to check the rising tide of the militant peasant movement was proving to be futile. It is in that context that the ultra-Left movement surfaced in the tiny hamlet of Naxalbari in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal. Later on, as a sequel to the essentially agrarian nature of the protest, it degenerated into largely armed activities of urban groups of youth and students. That these activities were almost exclusively directed against the CPI (M) and the Left was a foregone conclusion given the experience of the ultra Left anywhere in the world. It was also in the background of such a course of development that the 9th Congress of the CPI (M) noted “…petty-bourgeois adventurism must degenerate into an anti-working class, anti-revolutionary line and its inevitable destiny was to serve the interests of the ruling classes”. Finally, the movement that started with pronouncement of ushering in a `revolutionary transformation' got completely hijacked by the Congress and paved the way for the period of semi-fascist terror of the seventies.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

For the last thirty years since the Left Front government has been in office in West Bengal, the Naxalite movement has generally faded into oblivion. The reasons were obvious. What proved decisive in the isolation of the naxalites was the successful and widespread land reform that was led by the organised Left. This process got statutory backing when the Left Front government came to power. So the combination of socio-economic development, political and ideological interventions by the CPI (M) and the organised Left led to the situation that prevailed in West Bengal during the last three decades.

The reappearance of the sporadic actions of the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) and the CPI (ML)-(People's War Group) in the beginning of this decade were however not based on any sustained work of the ultra Left in the largely tribal dominated areas of West Medinipur, Bankura and Purulia -loosely referred to as the Jangalmahal. These activities which again were mostly limited to carrying out ‘hit and run’ armed attacks against the CPI (M) killing its cadre. These activities were carried out with their bases in Jharkhand which had a long border with these districts. Subsequent to the formation of the CPI (Maoist) these forays increased. But what has really ensured the scaling up of the Maoist activities and violence with CPI (M) as its principal target has been the open support that they have come to enjoy from the Trinamul Congress.

The Trinamul Congress suffered a major electoral drubbing in the 2006 assembly elections. Apart from the positive support of the people to the policies of the Left Front government a major instrumental factor in the electoral outcome was the TMC's association with the BJP which by the time had come to face increasing political isolation following the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. In fact the Left movement in the country based on the strength of the support it enjoyed of the people of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura against the communal-fascist politics of the saffron brigade and its aggressive neo-liberal promotion of the ‘Shining India’ paradigm contributed largely to the BJP's electoral predicament. The 2006 assembly elections were also an endorsement of the people to the Left Front's call for setting up new industries.

It had become apparent to the Indian ruling classes and particularly to the most die-hard political opponents of the Left -epitomised by the Trinamul Congress -that the Left in West Bengal cannot be undermined by the traditional rightwing platform which had been repeatedly attempted and failed in the past. Therefore, the need for an image makeover and refashioning the formal thrust of the opposition platform was initiated. The Trinamul Congress rallied some of the fringe naxalite groups and the SUCI around it on the question of opposition to use of agricultural land per se for setting up industry and infrastructure.

It is this background which saw many disparate forces coming together for their own reasons to undermine the Left Front government. The CPI (M)'s opposition to the pro-US imperialist shift in our foreign policy provided great impetus to both the forces of imperialism and the domestic ruling elite who preferred such a shift to engage more actively to lend support to this political project of launching a fresh political offensive. These sections were oblivious of the Left wing pretensions and avowed defence of the rights of small and marginal farmers who had come to overwhelmingly own agricultural land in the state. Incidentally, during the Left Front tenure an unprecedented 84 per cent of the cultivable land in the state was under the ownership of the small and marginal farmers. These advocates of neo-liberal globalisation had no confusion about the real nature of the Left sounding verbiage that the Trinamul Congress and its voluble supremo Mamata Banerjee were spitting. They knew right away that the pathological hatred that the Trinamul Congress harboured towards the CPI(M) and the Left can hardly result in anything but ultimately secure the most favourable atmosphere for the Right once the Left could be undermined.

Since the developments in Nandigram, this sinister nexus was becoming increasingly apparent. The methods which were employed in Nandigram pointed towards the involvement of political forces which were unlike the traditional anti-Left forces. The digging up of roads, the blowing up of bridges and the targeted killing of the CPI (M) activists in Nandigram created that situation where the entire area was out of bounds for the administration much before the unfortunate police firing of March 14, 2007. Later on, the Maoists themselves have revealed details about their involvement in Nandigram. In fact, a document of the West Bengal-Jharkhand Committee of the Maoists had pointed out that there is a growing opportunity for them to unite with different anti-Left political forces and forge an ‘all-in unity’ against the CPI (M) which according to them was a `social fascist' force. It is important to note that as is wont with the ultra Left, they did not find it necessary to elaborate economic, social or political factors leading to such a characterisation. The type of ammunitions that were unearthed, the eyewitness accounts of training given to the Trinamul led Bhoomi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee, the umbrella organisation which spearheaded the Nandigram agitation were tell tale signs of Maoist presence. Of course, subsequently, it did not require any formal investigation to establish such a connection. The Maoist leaders themselves, notably Koteswar Rao, alias Kishanji has made that explicit. Claiming the support that the Maoists had provided to the Trinamul in Nandigram they urged a quid pro quo from Mamata Banerjee vis a vis Lalgarh and Jangalmahal. That the Maoists were there and continue to have operational contacts is clear from the manner in which Nishikanta Mondal -the pradhan of Sonachura gram panchayat – the epicentre of the Nandigram agitation was eliminated by the Maoists. Mamata Banejree and the Trinamul Congress leadership had tried to shift the onus of the assassination of Mondal on the CPI (M). The Maoists came out with a strong rebuttal claiming responsibility for the murder. The Maoists further claimed that elimination of Mondal was the result of his attempt to shrug off the Maoists.

The Maoists have actually rubbished Mamata's claim. In a report published by the Telegraph on November 27, 2009, (which by no means can be faulted for its Left sympathies!)

A statement purportedly by Selim, head of the Maoists’ Nandigram zonal committee, said: “You (Mamata) had said at a rally at Sonachura recently that it was the CPM who brought us to Nandigram in 2007 and provided us with safe passage to flee. You know it was a lie.”

Selim invited the railway minister to an open debate at Sonachura. “If you believe what you said in your speech was a fact, please come to Sonachura and we will prove who is right, you or us.”

The statement also criticised Mamata’s proposal for engaging the army in Lalgarh.

It said: “We appointed Narayan to lead the Nandigram movement against CPM cadres. Trinamul MP Subhendu Adhikary knows how many times Narayan visited Nandigram and how he worked among the people of the area.

“You had delivered a speech from a place in Sonachura after the death of Nishikanta Mandal, the local (Trinamul) gram panchayat pradhan. It was the same place where Adhikary had shared a stage with Narayan and our state committee member Sukumar to address the people of Nandigram.”

The Maoist leader explained why Mandal was killed by his men: “After Trinamul achieved political success in Nandigram, it wanted to drive us out of the area. Mandal was planning to hand over Narayan to police. He had to pay for his betrayal. We are still active in Nandigram and we will be there in future.”

The Lalgarh episode was sparked off following police actions in the area in the wake of a mine blast which was intended to kill the West Bengal chief minister on 2 November 2008, when he was returning from a programme in Salboni to inaugurate a steel plant. Incidentally there was no agitation on land acquisition in the proposed site of the plant neither was any SEZ proposal involved. The so-called People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) which had been created in the wake of the attempted assassination was not interested in anything else but disallowing the entry of the state administration and the police personnel into the area. Subsequently, it became clear that they were acting as the front of the Maoists demanding withdrawal of cases against the Maoist squad leader Sasadhar Mahato who had carried out the assassination attempt on the West Bengal chief minister.

Trinamul Congress And Maoists

The link between the PCAPA and the Trinamul Congress was also clear from the very beginning. The PCAPA spokesperson Chhatradhar Mahato, Sashadhar's brother, had been a former Trinamul Congress local leader. Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and other Trinamul leaders had also attended events organised by the PCAPA in Lalgarh during this phase though these areas were otherwise out of bounds of the administration. Now even the home minister has admitted in the Rajya Sabha (on 2 December) that the PCAPA is “only a front organisation to the CPI (Maoist)”.

In February 2009, Mamata Banerjee and other leaders of the Trinamul Congress attended political events of the PCAPA in Kantapahari the Maoist stronghold. The Trinamul Congress refused to accept that the committee was a Maoist front and did their level best to legitimise them as a genuine mouthpiece for `spontaneous unrest' of tribals who were `suffering under the 32 years of Left Front misrule'. The Trinamul Congress has spared no efforts to oppose the joint operation of central and state police in Lalgarh and adjoining areas and call for the withdrawal of those forces. Mamata Banerjee in her inimical style had claimed time and again that the assassination attempt of the chief minister was `stage managed' by the CPI (M) and Maoist presence in Lalgarh and Jangalmahal is a figment of the CPI (M)'s imagination.

But as and how the Maoist involvement in Lalgarh became impossible to deny, the task became all the more onerous given the overall stand of the central government on the Maoist question highlighted by the prime minister's observation `Maoist violence is the single largest threat to the country's internal security'. Meanwhile, the Maoist leadership was also making it impossible for Trinamul and Mamata to deny the complicity. Kishanji on 4 October 2009 clearly stated that Mamata was their preferred choice for becoming the next chief minister of the state. Of course, the Maoist leader Kishanji justified that with weird argument that Mamata being an all important individual with the sole proprietorship of her party – could be manipulated in favour of the people and insulated from the overall ruling class policy framework. The Maoists are real dreamers! They can bring themselves to ignore the fact that Trinamul Congress is a part of the central government which pursues a pro-imperialist neo-liberal policy. But on the other hand Kisanji's claims to Ananda Bazar Patrika- the spearhead of the media offensive against the Left-underlines the danger that democracy and the people face from such an obnoxious combination.

Undeterred by the failure of Trinamul and Mamata to call off the joint operation, Maoists have time and again repeated their pleas – at times even assuming a cajoling tone to pursue their goal. The Trinamul Congress of course has repeated its opposition to the joint operation and Trinamul leaders not only at the grass root level but also central ministers and other leading functionaries have visited Lalgarh to provide with specific assurances for operational support. The infiltration of Trinamul ranks by Maoist elements is a fact which has been confirmed by security experts and also substantiated by official intelligence received by both the central and the state governments.

Instances of Trinamul-Maoist nexus are almost unlimited. But the most explicit of these was played out around the siege of Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express near Jhargram. That the siege was the handiwork of the Maoists was apparent from the very outset given the demands of those who perpetrated this crime. Neatly scribbled demand for the release of Chatradhar Mahato who had admitted that he was appointed the spokesman for the PCAPA by the Maoist operatives was a clear proof of the Maoist involvement. In fact the Maoists have given call for bandhs in the area demanding his release. But the railway minister refused to accept the truth and tried initially to blame it on the CPI(M). Later, the railway FIR did not even mention the Maoists.

The unsatiable thirst for power has landed the Trinamul Congress and its supremo in the company of all kinds of forces who are inimical to the interests of the people, democracy and development. This has happened in the past as well. Otherwise, how can one forget the ganging up with the BJP-- from the very day the Trinamul was born. Today, it seems that notwithstanding the broad political consensus in the country over the disastrous course that the Maoists have embarked upon – the Trinamul Congress and its leader is acting as if they are in siege. This sinister political course has to be defeated. Peace, democracy and people's welfare face an unprecedented challenge in West Bengal. It is a challenge which does not only affect the Left. For all patriots and well meaning people it calls for action. The central government also has a responsibility. The lessons of the Bhindranwale phenomenon cannot be lost on us.

Left leader Memorandum to PM : Irresponsible and dangerous moves of the Railways Minister

New Delhi, December 4: Following is the memorandum given to PM by the leaders of Left parties -- Sitaram Yechury, Basudeb Acharia, Shyamal Chakraborty, Prabodh Panda, Manohar Tirki, Barun Mukherjee.




December 4th 2009

Dr. Manmohan Singh
Hon’ble Prime Minister of India
New Delhi


Sub: Irresponsible and dangerous moves of the Railways Minister

Dear Prime Minister,

1. You have called the ‘Maoists’ the greatest internal threat to the security of the country, and yet, the Railway minister has kept providing these elements with her full fledged support in the media and through her declarations and acts. She has also repeatedly called for the release of Chhatradhar Mahato, named accused in murder cases. The Railway minister is constantly demanding the withdrawal of Joint Forces from West Bengal, which will only facilitate the activities of the Maoists. Within hours of a landmine blast in West Midnapore on 27.11.2009 which killed two policemen, the Railway Minister denigrated the Joint Forces.

2. The said minister has claimed before the media inter alia that the violence being committed on and against the leaders and workers of the CPI(M) is not the handiwork of the CPI(Maoist) but a result of internecine feud. She has called for the arrest of the Bengal Chief Minister and in the same breath the release of Chhatradhar Mahato while repeatedly calling also for application of ART 355 and 356 in Bengal. The ‘Maoists’ receive a moral boost from her declarations and deeds And almost simultaneously the Maoist Leader Kishanji reciprocated by airing his loud suggestions that the present Railway Minister should be the Chief Minister of West Bengal.

3. The annexed copies of the media reports would make it clear, the AITC and the CPI(Maoist), have long been engaged in destabilising the political situation of the state by means of assassination, mayhem, arson, committing crimes on women and generally seeking to create a situation where the democratic fabric of the state in put under great duress. The Maoist along with AITC activists are forcing people at gunpoint to join their rally and barricades.



4. Annexure I A, B, and C provide a detailed list of the leaders and workers of the CPI(M) and Left Front assassinated by the Maoist and the people’s War Group (PWG) from 2001. The number of those killed from June 2006 itself is 326. The ‘Maoists’ and the AITC have also killed, scores of common men, women, children, as well as police and medical personnel.

5. The AITC leadership is a close patron of the leadership of the People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), and its supremo Chhatradhar Mahato. Annexure II A, B, and C provide examples of this state-of-affairs from media reports.

6. Annexure III in the form of a CD contains photos that show the Railway Minister, Chhatradhar Mahato, and a section of the intelligentsia in confabulation in the area of Lalgarh, which has been a ‘Maoist’ stronghold. The PCAPA is nothing but a mass front of the CPI (Maoist) as reports in the media have repeatedly noted.

7. We draw your attention to the recent declaration of the ‘Maoist’ leader ‘Kishanji’ that since they have provided support to the AITC at Nandigram against the CPI(M), the AITC should come forward and help them at Lalgarh and adjacent areas.

8. The most recent incident of the blockade of the Rajdhani Express exposes the AITC game plan further. Even as the blockade was going on and graffiti being painted on the sides of the bogies calling for the release of Chhatradhar Mahato who is presently in police custody, the railways minister blamed the ‘Marxists’, meaning the CPI(M) that has held the train up. To add insult to injury, a full 24 hours earlier to the blockade, an AITC central minister Shri Sisir Adhikari had claimed before the media that he ‘knew that the blockade would take place.’ The source of ‘knowledge’ of this minister may kindly be probed and the nation kept informed.

9. At a time when the ‘Maoists’ have laid claim to the murder of an AITC worker Nishikanta Mondal at Nandigram on 22 September 2009, the Railway Minister keeps harping on the untruth that he was ‘killed by the CPI(M).’ On 29.11.2009, she has also said that she was privy to clues of the murder.



10. We enclose as Annexure II A and B the English translation of what has appeared in the Bengali print media on the nexus between the AITC-PCAPA-‘Maoists’ and as Annexure IV we enclose the original reports in Bengali that has appeared in the Bengali print media.

11. We urge upon you to take appropriate implicational notice of the developments.

Thanking you,

Yours sincerely,

............................

From India News Network (INN)

West Bengal Left Front Memo to the Central Team

KOLKATA: 2 December, 2009-The following is the memorandum submitted by the Left Front of West Bengal to the central team visiting the state on December 1, 2009, detailing the incidents of terror, killings, loot and destruction of property indulged in by the Trinamool Congress and their Maoist accomplices.

TMC - MAOIST NEXUS

The anti-Left gang up, consisting of the Trinamool Congress, their ‘Maoist’ accomplices and other allies including some separatist forces, has been hell bent to disrupt and jeopardise the democratic atmosphere of West Bengal.

The TMC-backed hoodlums seem to learn no lesson even to-day and these forces of anarchism and disorder are in no mood to give up their fascist-like terror-tactics.

The irresponsible behaviour especially on the part of the members of the union cabinet representing the TMC is deplorable. It is quite unprecedented that two union ministers, Mukul Roy, minister of state for shipping and Sisir Adhikari, minister of state for rural development along with leader of the opposition in the state assembly, Partha Chattopadhyay went to Lalgarh on 28 July 2009 defying Section 144 and paying no heed to the advice of the state administration not to do so.

The open demand to withdraw the joint security forces from Lalgarh even by the members of the union cabinet reveals their disrespect for the decision of the union cabinet and exposes once again TMC’s covert and overt connivance with the Maoists and the so-called ‘Janasadharaner Committee’.

Such an attitude is quite detrimental to democratic norms and will only encourage the Maoist gunmen and anti-social opportunists. This is part of a well planned programme to incite and organise violent activities in West Bengal for petty political gains.

It may also be remembered that few months back a TMC MP ‘warned’ in Khejuri of Purba Medinipur district that nobody would be allowed to remain to hold aloft the Red Flag.

The terror-tactics of the TMC and its allies and their total disregard for democratic norms are also exposed in the incidents of planned attempts of assassinating democratically elected people’s representatives.

Apart from attacking Left Front MLAs, the armed anti-socials backed by the TMC in particular are threatening our local body members in Panchayats and municipalities and even forced a number of them under gun point to tender resignation from their respective responsibilities as elected members.

It’s now an open secret that the TMC and its ‘Maoist’ accomplices are helping each other in various forms and the pro-Maoist elements/ex-Naxalites are getting entry into different frontal organisations backed by the TMC.

In Nandigram, the Maoists helped the Trinamool hoodlums. In Khejuri also they came forward to back the TMC.

TMC leaders are also conspicuously maintaining golden silence uttering nothing against, rather tacitly supporting the senseless activities of the ‘Maoists’ at times.

It is a shame that even when Rajdhani Express passengers were at the threshold of abduction recently, the union railway minister tried to skirt the responsibility from the shoulders of the Maoists.

Nishikanta Mondal, a TMC leader and gram panchayat pradhan in Nandigram, Purba Medinipur was killed. The TMC leadership including its supremo tried to pass on the buck onto the CPI(M), even when the Maoists accepted the responsibility of ‘punishing’ Mandal.

The facts recorded below will reveal the real picture of how the TMC-Maoist combine is operating in West Bengal right now:

2 Nov 2008 – Mine blast to kill Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in Shalboni, Paschim Medinipur. The chief minister and other dignitaries narrowly escaped.

3Nov 2008 –‘Eye wash’ was Mamata Banerjee’s comment on the incident.

6 Nov 2008 - Mamata Banerjee in a rally in Kolkata said: ‘I don’t see any Maoists here.’

17 Nov 2008– A so-called ‘People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities’ was organised in Dalilpur Chawk, Lalgarh, Paschim Medinipur. Chatradhar Mahato was made its spokesperson. Khemananda Mahata, Asit Mahato, Jatin Pratihar and such Trinamool Congress leaders are in the front rank. CPI(M) since the very beginning has been pointing out that Chatradhar Mahato is a Trinamool leader. Chatradhar too admited this on 4 July 2009. In the last year’s panchayat election, he was the election agent of Khemananda Mahato, a TMC candidate in the panchayat samiti. He even was responsible for giving a lead to the Trinamool in three booths of Lalgarh.

27 Dec 2008 - Mamata Banerjee submitted a memorandum to the governor of West Bengal about the issues concerning West Bengal. But there also, not a single time did she mention about Maoist problems.

1 Feb 2009 - Comrade Nandalal Pal, CPI(M) Binpur Zonal Committee member was murdered while performing the last rites of his mother in Murar of Ramgarh.

2 Feb 2009 - Even Comrade Nandalal Pal’s mother’s last rites were not allowed to be performed by Chatradhar Mahato-led goons.

4 Feb 2009 – Mamata Banerjee went to Khasjungle Chotopelia Dharampur area of Lalgarh, pillion riding on a motor cycle provided by the Maoists without any police protection and attended a local political programme. There she also met with Chatradhar Mahato and other PSJBC leaders, addressed a public meeting there supporting Chatradhar Mahato and his gang but maintained a golden silence on the Maoists. This inspite of the fact that the district administration had requested her not to go to Lalgarh.

6 April 2009 - The Trinamool candidate and retired bureaucrat-turned TMC boss Dipak Ghosh demanded that the election should be held in Lalgarh without any police presence. Same was the demand of Chatradhar Mahato.

12 April 2009 - Chatradhar Mahato raised a new set of demands that the so called ‘civil society’ ( pro-TMC group who were already involved in anti Left campaign in the state ) should act as observers in the poll process in Lalgarh.

24 April 2009 - Chatradhar Mahato and his gang created ruckus in Kolkata, Trinamool preferred to look the other way.

17 June 2009 – The campaign of the joint security forces started. Kishenji, Maoist boss was quoted as, ‘What will Mamata do now?’ On the first day of the joint forces’ campaign, the Maoists for the first time opened fire on the security forces from the house of a Trinamool leader Anil Mahato. Police arrested six miscreants from that house.

20 June 2009–Mamata Banerjee labeled the joint forces campaign as the ‘state- sponsored terrorism’.

23 June 2009 –Gour Chakraborty, ‘spokesman’ of the Maoists was arrested.

28 June 2009- Mamata Banerjee dismissed angrily villagers’ offering of drinking water to jawans of the joint forces as “all drama’

10 July 2009 -- The Maoists brutally murdered CPI (M) Party member Comrade Gurcharan Mahato (48) in Shirshi Village, Sadar Block of West Medinipore district. The Maoists set up a kangaroo court in the village and cut off the facial vein of Gurcharan Mahato.

11 July 2009- Biswanath Mahato , TMC activist from Belpahari and publicity secretary of Maoist leader Kishenji was produced in the court.

15 July 2009- The Maoists brutally murdered Comrade Gangahar Mahato (60), secretary of the Tumrashol local committee of the Party in Purulia district’s Barabajaar police station area’s Beldi village. Comrade Gangadhar Mahato was surrounded from all sides and was fired upon at point blank range and he died on the spot.

21 July 2009- Chatradhar Mahato wanted to sit in a discussion with a Trinamool delegation.
28 Jul 2009- Sishir Adhikary, Mukul Roy (both are union ministers) and Trinamool leader Partha Chatterjee went to Lalgarh defying Section 144 of the Cr P C and held closed-door parleys.

30 July 2009- In Paschim Medinipur district’s Goaltore’s Kanjimakali village, suspected Maoists gunned down CPI(M) leader Comrade Sagar Masant.

1 Aug 2009- Comrade Nirmal Mahato, secretary of the Birkaad branch committee of the Lalgarh was killed by the Maoists. His throat was slit by sharp weapons and hit with flat objects. Comrade Nirmal Mahato was the resident of the same village as that of the Maoist leader Chatradhar Mahato.

17 Aug 2009- CPI (M) Jibontla local committee member Madar Ali Mollah was shot gruesomely by Trinamool congress hooligans. The sixty-seven year old veteran leader was shot at point blank range. Before killing him, the miscreants also attacked the Zonal CPI (M) Party office at Canning, South 24 Paraganas. Several structures including a CPI (M) demonstration venue, a transport workers’ union office, an auto rickshaw union office were destroyed.

29 Aug 2009- In Purulia district, Comrade Laxmikanta Kumar, secretary of the CPI(M) Chatuhaasa local committee and Arshaa CPI(M) zonal committee member and was killed brutally by the Maoist- Trinamool assassins. He was a farmer by profession. The miscreants fled riding on a motorcycle.

30 Aug 2009- Comrade Debiprasad Hazra, secretary of CPI(M) ‘s Balarampu Gitilanghar Branch, Balarampur, Purulia district, was killed by the Maoists. He was brutally shot before the eyes of his 5 year old son.

8 Sept 2009- Comrade Ramdas Murmu was brutally killed by the Maoists. He was a primary school teacher and a member of the CPI(M) Sukhdali local committee, Sarenga area of Bankura district.

10 Sept 2009 - Comrade Krishna Kundu, CPI(M) Sarenga zonal committee member and secretary of the Bikrampur local committee, Bankura district was brutally murdered by the Maoists.

14 Sept 2009 - In Lalgarh Block, two persons were killed by the Maoist Trinamool alliance. Before the eyes of innocent children in a school building, their teacher Kartik Mahato was brutally gunned down by the Maoists. He was teaching his students in a class room. On the same date, in Shalboni’s Buripala, CPI(M) branch secretary Sambhu Mahato was forced out from his grocery shop and was killed by the Maoists. In the last nine days of September in Jangalmahal, seven CPI(M) workers had been killed by the Maoists. Four ordinary villagers had been killed by the Maoists.

18 Sept 2009 – Jatin Pratihar, TMC leader close to the Maoists was arrested from Katapahari along with Trinamool workers, Aswini Bej , Sunil Bej and Sundar Mandi.

20 Sept 2009 - Trinamool organised demonstrations demanding the release of the Maoists, they gheraoed a Police Camp in Dherua.

26 Sept 2009 - Chatradhar Mahato was arrested.

28 Sept 2009 - Noted strategic expert Bed Marwa alerted on entry of Maoists within Trinamool ranks.

3 Oct 2009- Mamata Banerjee is the fittest candidate for the post of West Bengal chief minister’, said Kishenji.

10 Oct 2009- ‘The central government didn’t want to arrest Chatradhar Mahato. The joint forces did a wrong thing. The Maoists should get a chance and the intellectuals should mediate on this issue’, commented Mamata Banerjee

14 Oct 2009- Kishanji welcomed Mamata Banerjee’s demand to withdraw the joint forces from Lalgarh.

25 Oct 2009– Sishir Adhikary, union minister attended a secret meeting in Salboni resulting in tension in the area.

27 Oct 2009- Attack on Rajdhani Express. - Sishir Adhikary claims that he knew about it - beforehand. Mamata Banerjee didn’t even mention about the involvement of the Maoists and said it is the work of CPI(M) .

29 Oct 2009- Not a single name of accused persons is present in the FIR of the Railways.

22 Nov 2009 - Comrade Tapan Mahato was killed in Salboni by the Maoists. He was among the three CPI (M) workers abducted by the Maoists.

24 Nov 2009–CPI (M) Binpur 2 zonal committee member Madan Ghosh was killed by the Maoists. In Belpahari block's Hardah area’s Aulia village when he was reaping his harvest, the Maoists fired upon him and then hit him with choppers. Madan Ghosh’s young son who was a police employee was also not spared .He was also shot at.

26 Nov, 2009 – Subimal Malli , ABTA member and teacher of Ranga High school and CPI(M) supporter, was shot from a close range by suspected Maoists . They snatched the money that he was carrying and shot the teacher and his pillion rider.

29 Nov 2009- Mamata Banerjee reiterated: ‘There is nothing called Mao’.

Attacks against CPI (M) members and supporters in Pursurah, Hooghly:

1. Dilip Manna, son of Haradhan Manna from village Shyampur, was brutally murdered by TMC Hoologans on 22, December 2008. The FIR No. is 144/08.

2. Mosammat Siddique Begam, wife of S K Mosaraf of village Boro Digrni, aged 40 years was gangraped, her hands and leg was broken by rapist TMC hooligans on 27 September 2009. The
FIR No. is 111/09

3. Saifunnesa Bibi, mother of Mosaraf, aged 75 years was attacked on 27 September 2009. Her left leg was smashed by iron rods. She was admitted first in Dakshin Narayanpur BPHC, Arambagh and transferred to Arambagh SD Hospital, and later on referred to SSKM Hospital where she died on 4 November 2009.The FIR No. is 115/09 dated 17October 2009.

4. Sk Hasibul Hussain, son of Late Moliar of village Boro Digrui was brutally beaten with iron rods. His hands, legs and rib bones were crushed. He died in Hospital. His house was attacked, ransacked and looted. The FIR No. is 100/09 dated 26 September 2009.

5. Baidyanath Pal of Sodepur, Pursurah was attacked.

6. Ganesh Hasda from Scheduled Tribe was brutally murdered in open day light. The FIR No. is 88/09 dated 12September 2009

7. From the 24-25 November 2009, eight members of Shyampur gram panchayat were beaten and forced to sign resignation letters. Chhabi Hazra, gram panchayat member, and her husband were beaten, their house was looted and destroyed.

Altamesa Begam, Pursurah panchayat samiti member of village Borodigrui was beaten and forced to sign resignation letter. Her house was looted. The FIR could not be lodged because of threat from TMC goondas. The house of Bimal Sigha Roy, Pursurah zonal committee member was looted and set to fire. Jharna Bhukta, wife of Kanan Bhukta, Shyampur gram panchayat member was beaten and forced to sign resignation letter. No FIR could be lodged because of threat from TMC goondas.

Gobinda Bera, pradhan, Shyampur gram panchayat in his written complaint to officer-in-charge, Pursurah complained that TMC miscreants are forcing him to sign on allocation of funds, looting the funds of panchayat. TMC miscreants are threatening him that his family would be murdered if he refuses to sign according to their instruction (Already established in district magistrate’s enquiry on last 25 November 2009).

8. Eight Party offices of CPI (M) in Pursurah were looted and burnt to ashes. The houses of 37 persons belonging to minority community were looted and destroyed. The houses of 65 persons belonging to the Scheduled Caste community were looted and destroyed till date. A total of 127 CPI(M) workers were seriously injured. A total of 173 workers and Party members were forced to leave their houses. The FIRs were lodged in Pursurah police station.

During the last floods, TMC miscreants looted relief materials from Pursurah relief godown (7 October to 12 October 2009).

All Types of weapons – guns, revolvers, mini canon, sword, tangi, and bombs are being used by the TMC hooligans in all the eight gram panchayat areas of Pursurah police station.
Astapada Bera of Pursurah village and Parvez Rahaman of Baikanthapur village are leading all the TMC attacks.

On Central Team to Bengal

EDITORIAL

PEOPLES DEMOCRACY

THE central government has dispatched a team of officials of the union home ministry for discussions with the officials of the West Bengal state government on issues pertaining to law and order in the state. The CPI(M) had strongly protested this on the grounds that this violates the letter and spirit of the federal structure of the Indian constitution. The Supreme Court on several occasions has judged that any central intervention on matters which fall within the purview of the state government, in the “state list” enumerated by the constitution, can only happen in consultation and in concurrence with the state government.

The Trinamul Congress had interpreted the dispatching of the central team as the first step in the process of ensuring central intervention in West Bengal leading eventually to the dismissal of the duly elected state government and imposition of president's rule under Article 356 of our constitution. The TMC has repeatedly expressed its desire publicly that it seeks an early election in West Bengal under president's rule. In fact, all its activities have been directed to achieve this objective. By utilising the Maoists they are continuously engendering violence and terror and use this to try and establish the breakdown of law and order in the state. On this pretext they are seeking central intervention. This has been their clear strategy which has resulted in the imposition of unprecedented hardships on the people of West Bengal and has claimed hundreds of innocent lives. Elsewhere in this issue, a detailed memorandum establishing the TMC-Maoist nexus and listing the series of attacks mounted by this combine on the CPI(M) and the people from the November 2008 attempt to assassinate Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, is being carried.

Forced to respond to the CPI(M) protests in the parliament, the home minister made a statement in both the houses which reflected a retraction from the position taken by the TMC concerning the import of the home ministry officials visit to West Bengal. Four points were unequivocally made by the government: a) The visit of this team of officials is non-confrontationist. b) They shall hold discussions only with the officials of the state government. c) They will visit districts or areas of conflict only if the state government requests and facilitates such visits. d) They may receive memoranda from political parties in West Bengal but are not mandated to have any discussions with them.

This assurance clarified the fact that the visit of this team was more in the nature of assisting the state government and not for assessing the law and order situation as made out by the TMC. Currently, the central and state security forces are jointly operating in Lalgarh and other adjoining areas in Midnapur in combatting the Maoist violence. The effort is to restore both normalcy and the rule of civil administration in these areas.

As stated earlier in these columns, it is simply untenable for the Congress to have the TMC as part of the ruling coalition. This is so because the prime minister on several occasions and the union home minister on more occasions have publicly gone on record to state that Maoist violence constitutes the gravest of threats to India's internal security. The TMC on the other hand is directly and openly collaborating with the Maoists in unleashing terror, creating lawlessness and anarchy besides claiming the lives of innocent people. It is for the Congress to explain how it can live with such blatant contradiction in its own union cabinet.

If the political objective is to try and weaken the CPI(M) and the Left in Bengal through murderous assaults and the spread of terror, then, all that can be said is that they have not learnt from history. Using Left adventurists to attack the CPI(M) is not a new phenomenon in West Bengal. For five years between 1972 and 1977, a semi-fascist terror was unleashed against the CPI(M) by a similar political combination. The CPI(M) not only fought back but has established an unassailable political and electoral leadership in the state for over three decades. Unable to break this consolidation of the Left Front in Bengal in the absence of any credible alternative policy direction that they could offer to the people of Bengal, the Trinamul Congress has ganged up with all reactionary forces, ranging from the Maoists to sections of Muslim fundamentalists, to dislodge the Left Front government and capture power through terror and violence. It is this unholy gang up under the leadership of the TMC that is mounting the current assaults in Bengal. This anti-democratic gang up and its violent terror attacks against the CPI(M) and the people of Bengal needs to be politically isolated and defeated in order to prevent the state from sliding back once again into lawlessness and anarchy like it was subjected to in the 1970s.

(December 2, 2009)

Assault on Federal Structure

New Delhi: 1 December, 2009- The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

The decision of the Central Government to send a Central team to West Bengal bypassing the state government is an assault on the federal structure mandated by the Constitution. It is unfortunate and regrettable that the Central government should succumb to the unreasonable and politically motivated demand of the Trinamool Congress for sending a team.

The politically motivated demand by the Trinamool Congress is against the spirit of the Constitution and amounts to a gross interference in the affairs of the state government. It further contravenes several judgments of the Supreme Court on this question.

The Trinamool Congress in collaboration with Maoists is creating a law and order situation in West Bengal by murdering CPI(M) and Left cadres and blame the Left Front government to cover up its nefarious activities.

The Polit Bureau appeals to all the democratic forces and the people to oppose the move of the Central government and the Trinamool Congress which violates the spirit of the Indian Constitution.